How health departments respond to illness outbreaks

Foodborne illness can occur in any restaurant at any time, even at the ones that are the most well run. When one happens, health inspection responses differ from the routine food safety inspections that restaurant managers and employees are used to seeing. 

The takeaways
Investigatory inspections focus on identifying specific foods and circumstances responsible for causing the outbreak, along with food safety practices and conditions applied in the past and at the time the food causing the incident was prepared. The goal: identify what led to the lapse that caused the illness to occur.

During an investigation, inspectors will…

•  interview managers and employees about their restaurant’s food-prep policies and practices
• review preparation of food items linked to the outbreak
• collect samples of food, surfaces and equipment
• take temperatures of stored foods
• look at sick worker logs
• observe activities such as food prep and cleaning

They’ll also …

• look at menus and specials served during the dates of the outbreak
• ask how and where the suspected food was prepared
• focus on the potential source of contamination
• explore customer complaints and reservation lists as well as third-party delivery and credit-card receipts to locate those individuals who got sick.

The bottom line
Always prepare for the unexpected and take steps to create a culture of food safety to help reduce the risk of an outbreak or illness at your restaurant. 

Stay tuned
Join us for Week 5 of National Food Safety Month, when our ServSafe experts offer tools that build a strong food safety culture as well as other resources that turn your operation into a model for food safety best practices.

Learn more about National Food Safety Month at foodsafetyfocus.com